Mobile equipment networks provide real-time and continuous wireless communication services to subscribers, through a deployment of wireless base stations and related control and support infrastructure collectively termed a radio access network (RAN). The RAN is the physical interface between the mobile network and the user terminal (e.g., mobile phone), utilizing wireless channels for real-time communication between client device and base station. Typically, base stations are deployed in a geometric arrangement to facilitate wireless service at any point within a geographic coverage area.
The most common geometric arrangement for a RAN deployment is a set of hexagonal cells mapped over a geographic coverage area. Each cell has a radio tower constructed at the center thereof, with base station equipment attached thereto. Client devices within a given cell typically communicate with the base station equipment of that cell, assuming the client device is capable of and permitted to do so. This geometric arrangement inherently provides a baseline communication quality, at least to a first order approximation, in that client devices will generally communicate with the nearest base station exhibiting the strongest signal.
In some cases, client devices can communicate with multiple base stations, or communicate with base station equipment in a nearby or neighboring cell, instead of a cell in which the client device is located. Generally speaking this occurs due to the time-varying nature of wireless communications. In the former case for instance, some wireless systems enable the client device to maintain basic signaling with an active set of multiple base stations. The client device can then monitor these signals over time and switch, or handoff, among the active set of base stations opportunistically—acquiring the best signal at a given point in time. In the latter case, a client device might communicate with a nearby cell if the cell in which the client is located has poor wireless characteristics (e.g., high interference, low signal strength), is at maximum capacity or is experiencing a service outage, or in like conditions.
Correcting wireless communication service outages is one important maintenance function of a wireless service provider. Service outages can occur due a wide range of circumstances, ranging from hardware failures (e.g., base station equipment) to heavy interference, and including temporary cell overloading and other transitory conditions. Generally, mobile networks include systems for detecting and reporting service outages to facilitate correcting these problems.
One particular example of network maintenance functionality is an electronic failure ticketing mechanism. For land mobile radio networks, when network nodes fail, an electronic ticket can be generated to notify service personnel of the failure. Specific examples of such failures can include transport failure (e.g., T1 failure), radio failure, microwave system failure, and so on. At a given point in time large networks can typically have multiple failures, affecting different radio base stations. Generally, all failures are granted equal priority and electronic tickets are serviced on a first-come-first-serve basis. This mitigates likelihood that a given failure is overlooked by service personnel. However, this mechanism does not discern a degree of impact on subscriber activity due to radio base site failures, either collectively or for given base stations. Where the volume of electronic failure tickets exceeds service resources, a common tendency is to increase the out of service time that triggers creation of a ticket. This of course doesn't cure the underlying failure, but merely masks magnitude of a given network problem. Accordingly, mechanisms for determining overall impact on network services and impact to subscriber activity can help to provide a better deployment of finite maintenance resources for correcting network service outages.